Last week I watched the notorious movie "10 Things I Hate About You", a high school based rom-com about a girl trying to set her anti-social sister up with a boy to avoid their dad's harsh dating rules. The twist is even though she claims to "not be uninterested" in dating nor boys, she ends up falling for the boy she claims to not want. Overall, it's a great movie on sisterhood and letting your guard with some scenes that do a perfect job immersing you into the story. Let's talk about these scenes and how a simple thing like angles can add to the feelings portrayed.
To begin, we're going to start with one of the most memorable scenes for me, the table scene. In this scene our "anti-society" main character, Kat, is convinced to go to a party by her sister, Bianca, and a boy interested in her, Patrick. Once they're there, she notices that her sister is with Joey, a bully/jock character from her past, in response, she gets drunk and starts dancing on a table. We get a quick angle of Bianca looking down on Kat. The high angle in this scene is the most important one as it depicts the character dynamic of the partygoers vs. Kat. Though Kat is enjoying herself, her dancing promiscuously on top of the table is out of character and looked down upon by everyone witnessing it. Due to the party atmosphere, it seems as if everyone is enjoying it along with her, but this angle hints towards the embarrassment of the situation to come. This is proven though a scene that occurs later in which Joey comments on the dance making fun of her.
Next, we're going to talk about the club scene from the movie which was vital in the relationship development between Kat and Patrick. In this scene, Patrick goes to a club for the 'girls and the gays' in a effort to get the attention of Kat. He sees her dancing but instead of chasing her, he sits at the bar. She then comes to the bar for water, sees him, and begins her abrasive demeanor towards Patrick expecting him to response emotionally. He instead carries a nonchalant tone, peaking the interest of Kat. This scene occurs from a eye level angle, in which the viewer feels like they've taken the perspective of someone sitting at the bar on the other side. This creates an personal feeling to the situation as the viewer feels like they're right there watching it. This along with the use of a medium shot is able to portray the body language and facials of the characters, building their relationship.
Another scene that was vital to the movies plot was the "Poem scene". In this scene, Kat presents to her class a very emotional poem expressing her hatred of the love she has towards Patrick. This also where the name of the movie comes from as she names 10 things she hates about him. In this scene, as she's giving the poem it's shot from a low angle, to place the focus of the shot onto Kat and the emotional body language she has. This low angle places emphasis on the unusual sight of Kat displaying her emotions. And it's one of the first direct confessions she has to Patrick.
Thank you so much for reading and if you haven't watched this movie yet I 100% recommend checking it out. This is definitely a classic rom-com. See you next week!
